The Lightning's Watcher

Arzen shot a glance at Elaine, who looked back at her. The former simply stood up and so did the other – both of them walking away from the table without a single word. Beatrice frowned slightly and was about to follow, but Therese shot her a look and forced her to sit down. This made the latter exhale loudly, she muttering an agitated “damn it, fine” under her breath.

“I don’t understand why she keeps doing this,” Arzen grumbled. Elaine merely chuckled, waiting as Arzen returned the tray and went back to her, both of them approaching the stairs. “I really don’t. It’s like she wants a freaking reaction out of us.”

“Well. Her thingy backfired,” Elaine replied dully. Arzen smirked at the use of the word, and as they climbed up the stairs, the braided girl went on. “We’ll just keep doing this. Backfiring and shiznuts.”

Arzen bit her lip.

“I hope this doesn’t get us sent to the guidance.”

Elaine frowned, “I don’t think it will. If it does. Well. We’ll just tell the truth.”

“The truth?”

“We’re innocent, Arzen. You, me, Therese, Beatrice, Cianna – all of us are freaking innocent. And speaking of Cianna, I think she was going to scream a while ago.”

“Good thing she didn’t.”

“Yeah. I could see the steam coming out of her head.”

“You think she knows?”

“Of course she knows.”

A pause.

“Do you think it’s just a…plastic-plastic thingy?”

Elaine didn’t reply. Arzen sighed yet again, and they reached the second floor of the building.

Climbing up some more, Arzen Venura frowned at the sudden gust at wind that blew.

She glanced out the window.

A sunny day greeted her.

Elaine noticed her stop, and turned her head to look at the girl.

“What is it?”

“…nothing, nothing. Just the wind.”

“The wind? It’s July and humid.”

“Exactly. I don’t know.” She caught up to Elaine and managed a laugh, “Maybe it’s Mother Nature on her way to kill us or something. I don’t even know anymore.” Arzen looked at the other. “Hey…is he still visiting or whatever? Taking you to places? Bringing you to Apalacupia?”

This made Elaine Rivers glance away.

“No. Not really.”

“Huh.”

The word hung in the air, and another gust of wind blew. Arzen immediately shot Elaine a look, to which the other sent a look back.

“It’s not me.”

“Don’t even think that I did that.”

They reached the third floor and were almost at their own.

Aside from the chatter from the Freshman area, the hallways were deserted.

“You know, there’d usually be people walking by over here.”

“We finished early?”

“Yeah, but still.”

“Well. At least we have some kind of privacy to talk about…it.”

“It?”

“Yeah. It-”

And finally, a gust of air blew harshly, making the glass windows shatter into many pieces. Expecting to be hit by the shards, Arzen covered her face and expected sharp pieces to pierce her skin, but none came. Slowly opening her eyes, she looked at Elaine, who remained unscathed.

Time had stopped perfectly.

The watch on Elaine’s wrist told them that.

Arzen glanced at her own watch and her eyes widened –

And she confirmed that it did stop, indeed.

“Oh. Well. That certainly wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Mathias Gletscher stood by the windows, frowning at the mess on the floor. He turned his head to the staring twosome and flashed a quick smile. “Sorry for the mess, ladies – excuse me while I fix this.”

And almost instantly, the shards flew back into the windows, frost immediately forming afterwards.

Elaine was the first to recover.

“Um…what the hell are you doing here?”

The redhead blinked, facing them after repairing the windows. “Ama – no. River, right? Elaine Rivers?” Elaine nodded. “And Er – no. No. Arzen Venura?”

Arzen could only a stammer a yes.

“Good thing I was able to catch up,” he continued, walking up the stairs. The two looked at each other and followed immediately. “And with no one watching. It would be awkward if someone saw me, yes?”

He sat down on the bench and looked at the two.

“You’re the guy we saw before we left Technika, right?” he nodded. “The guy who called the Watcher unattractive?” and he nodded again, a smirk coming to his lips. “…Matt?”

“Mathias,” he corrected. “Mathias Gletscher, co-head of the Data Department, type Dur-Glacier. I was sent here by Eri to watch her,” he pointed a finger at Arzen (who blushed more) “And you. If your blondie isn’t doing that, that is.”

“Watch?”

He nodded. “Things are going down in Technika. Not as serious as two years ago, but still serious that Eri wants me to check up on both of you. Especially Arzen.” Arzen opened her mouth to speak, but he went on. “Sadly, I wasn’t permitted to say anything, darling.”

“I’m not your darling,” Arzen said quickly.

His blue eyes seemed to gleam at that.

“Funny how you and her sound the same and sometimes talk the same way,” he said in a softer tone. Elaine felt like he was talking to himself rather than them. Mathias cleared his throat. “Anyway, she told me to check on you, see if you’re doing fine and all of that. Which you are?”

“We’re doing fine.” Arzen answered after a short-lived moment of silence.

“’Fine’ or fine?”

“Fine. Okay. Better than before,” she shrugged. “It’s not bad, it’s not good.”

Mathias smiled.

“If you’re doing alright, then why’s there a revolt going on back where I live?”

“A revolt-”

“As I said, nothing too serious. There’s no rain or Setomions or data disruption.” He ran a hand through his hair and went on, “Protection’s got it under control. But there’ve been revolts, small scale crimes and what not going on since two weeks ago.” Elaine and Arzen exchanged looks. “I’m not going to tell you who or what started it – even though I want to – but I’ve got a feeling it’s got something to do with your world. Can you confirm that for me?”

Arzen gave a small nod.

He sighed.

“Knew it. The skies gave it away.” Mathias took out a small figure from his pocket and stopped.

“I suppose you two wouldn’t mind…?”

“The cigarettes came from you?”

He grinned at Arzen.

“Of course it did, darling. Didn’t know it could reach you ladies.”

“It lasts for a few seconds. But yeah, we can smell it.”

“Huh. I thought the Invisibility Feature worked with cigarettes…I’ll ask Cissa about that when I get back.” He stood up, taking another small object from his pocket, and lit the cigarette. “Before I go, I’ll get time back up and running.”

“Is that a Glacier thing?”

He blinked, surprised at Elaine’s question.

“No. Technika recently installed the feature into a couple of suits and I signed up to test it. So far, it’s got limitations but they’re working on that.” He glanced at a small screen on his wrist, “This should wear off in a bit. Eri's waiting for me back at headquarters."

“Back home?”

Mathias nodded, chuckling softly.

“Yeah. Gonna update Blitz that you’re doing somewhat fine and get the suit updated. River,” he turned his gaze to Elaine, “Himmel told me to say hi.” Without giving Elaine a chance to reply, he went on. “I’ll see you soon, ladies.” And with that, he winked at both of them and disappeared into thin air, the smoke from the lit cigarette being the only thing that remained from his position.

And finally, time began to flow once more.